A warbler feast today (for Jean) but some consolation when I got in form work. Bay-breasted, Yellow-rumped and Tennesee warblers all happily splashing together. (Pictures a bit grainy due to extreme distance of photographer).

In the last few days, this small feeder pool and waterfall have been visited by Blackburnian, Tennesee, Chestnut-sided, Black and White, Black-throated Green, Blackpoll, Yellow-rumped, Nashville and Bay-breasted Warblers plus American Redstart

Also,  a Nashville Warbler appeared later in the day – got a photo of that (below) but not of the Chestnut-sided Warbler that preceded him by a couple of minutes:

Almost every bird was there because of the presence of the pond and waterfall – worth all the effort of installing because they certainly attract the migrators as well as the residents.

Pictures do the job better than words – click the thumbnails for decent sized images.

As a side topic and perhaps of interest to birders with scopes – a few years ago I purchased a “poor man’s” Wimberly type head made by Manfrotto for a tripod intending to use it to take photographs but never really made much use of it.  recently I have been mounting my spotting scope on it and it just the best thing since sliced bread for following birds in flight and you never need to lock it on a bird when the bird perches – just take your hands off it and stays where you pointed it. A bit bulkier than the usual tripod head but really good … using this rig to follow flying Bobolinks at 60x magnification was a revelation. Serendipity.

The only bird picture was a Phoebe captured through the scope via my iPhone … not a good picture but I will post it below anyway and accompany it with an image of the sun slanting through the blossom trees … also an iPhone image and surprisingly good (I think) considering.

Early sun beams at Blossom Corner

The birds seen or heard (reported to eBird) were these … Greg (the man with the amazing birding ears) had a few more.

Canada Goose, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk,Ring-billed Gull, Mourning Dove, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe, Blue-headed Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, American Crow, Tree Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Black-capped, Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, House Wren, American Robin, European Starling, Ovenbird, Tennessee Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Cape May Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler Black-throated Green Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Scarlet Tanager, Northern Cardinal, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Bobolink, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, Baltimore Oriole, Purple Finch, American Goldfinch

And now the “needs must” photo

Eastern Phoebe “captured” by iPhone through a spotting scope. Not a good or even adequate opicture but when you have no real camera with you then you make do with what’s at hand.

Very true – even if the transformative nature simply makes you fat. I make the week’s sourdough every Sunday and it one routine I am very reluctant to miss. Just simply the best thing anyone can do at a weekend.

Check the bread pages of this journal for more.

Herewith some images from a damp May weekend …

Meanwhile, up in the arboretum the spring forest flowers are showing well in all this sunshine. I recall when gardening in England that trilliums were an expensive rarity that were renowned for their difficulty and general opposition to flowering at all whereas here they just pop out of the ground.  Lovely things.

I have some photographs of these below as well as some pictures of a Great Horned Owl sitting on her nest.  In a few days she will be almost impossible to see as the leaves unfurl around here but today she was showing well.  Once her young are ready to leave the nest it may be necessary to close the forest trail she rather foolishly decided to place her nest adjacent to because the young will end up on the ground and thereby become of interest to uncontrolled dogs who will in turn to of interest to the mother owl … and she has a formidable armoury.  The dogs would lose but not necessarily before doing some damage. The flowers are a lot easier to photograph though the Trout Lilies and the Red Trilliums (though not the whites) have a propensity to turn their heads to the ground making it a knee-damaging task to get good pictures.

Anyway – some pictures.  As usual click on the thumbnails for a quality view.

The Magnolias are magnificent this year – here are some pictures of the Magnolia soulangiana that we have at the front of the house.